Max McDaniels
Max McDaniels is a student at Rowan and a member of the Red Branch. He is the son of Lugh Lámhfhada and Deirdre Fallow. Max is the main protaganist of the series. Max's charge is Nick, a Black Forest lymrill. Appearance Max has wavy black hair and hazel eyes. He is tall and strong. He also has a thin scar on his face from his time training with Scathach. Personalities Max is brave and always eager to help but gets angry quickly, which fuels the Old Magic in his veins. When angry, his body trembles which is often a prelude to an astonishing burst of action. He is proud, and unwilling to show weakness. He is also courageous and loyal, willing to do the right thing. An example of this is his immediate defense of his recruiter, Nigel Bristow, in the last of the Potentials tests. He is impetuous, not necessarily thinking of the consequences of each action; when he left Prusias's Games, he was not thinking of the fact that it left his superiors looking incompetent. His pride leaves him easily goaded into spur-of-the-moment actions which he sometimes regrets later. As the series progresses, he matures greatly. He has better control of his emotions so that they doesn't interfere with his duties and responsibilities. He has good leadership abilities and has a strong sense of justice. He is also morally civilized and polite, as pointed out by Scathach. He can be a bit oblivious to hints given to him from his friends. He says what he thinks, though not always thinking about whether he should say it or not. Background Max was supposedly the son of Brynn McDaniels and Scott McDaniels. However, it is later revealed that his biological father is Lugh Lámhfhada, and that he is a demigod. Even in his childhood his being special was hinted as he used to get sudden attacks and headaches from the surge of the Old Magic within him. He and his family led a quiet life in Chicago, Illinois, up until the day Brynn McDaniels disappeared in the car, leaving no trace behind. Due to the sudden disappearance of his mother, Max's childhood is tormented by the other antagonistic characteristics. He usually got into fights with bullies teasing him for his mother's absence. He would beat them up badly for saying so. One day, Max and his father visit a museum situated nearby, where he encounters Peter Varga. Once inside the museum, owing to certain coincidences, he ends up inside a small room, where he encounters a tapestry of the Cattle Raid of Cooley. Plot to return The Hound of Rowan Max’s father runs into an acquaintance of his when he and Max travel together to celebrate His mother's birthday at her favorite museum, even though she is gone. Beforehand Max encounters a strange person with scary green and white eyes. Things get worse in the museum where he’s stalked by the man and enters a mysterious room to escape him. Where he finds an ancient tapestry depicting Cuchulain, his brother. He learns later on that seeing the tapestry was proof of his magic and after a series of trouble, hysterias and tests he enters Rowan Academy. He meets his roommate David Menlo and also a Lymrill, Nick, who chooses to become his charge. (Basically a charge is a life-long bond between magical animal and human student) He creates a history by defeating the second year students in a match. Jealousy arises within Alex Munoz, a second year student, who starts a fight with Max. This result in both of them getting punished by Miss Boon to clean the Kestrel. There they get kidnapped by two vyes who had attacked Max before. They are taken to a hideout where one of the blacksmiths of the fallen school Solas talks to them. Alex is persuaded to join them, whereas Max is reluctant to. As they use Max’s blood to revive their master Astaroth, Peter Varga saves him, though the blacksmith and his followers succeed in bringing back Astaroth. Through his body amplification he carries all the kidnapped students back to the surface and kills the vyes. He saves Peter from near death, then waits with Peter and the children for the help Peter had called. Once he's at Rowan again he becomes a hero who had saved a lot of people, though some of the second year antagonize him for leaving Alex Muñoz back in the dungeon despite the fact that he didn't want to. Alex is revitalizes and joins Astaroth. At the end of the book, Max received the Gauntlet of Beowulf, which was presented by Peter Varga. He was the youngest person to have received this award. The Second Siege It is later revealed by Astaroth that he is not actually Scott McDaniel's son and that his name is also false. Even though he initially doesn't believe it, he knows it's true when he meets Lugh in the Sidh, and finds his true father to be Lugh himself. This is later confirmed by his mother as well, who explains that Lugh came to her in a dream and told her that she'd give birth to a son of his, who would become stronger than anyone else. At first, everyone thought he was Cuchulain, the Irish hero, but he is only his half brother. He trains with Scathach, before leaving with David Menlo to obtain the Book of Origins. Later, during the Siege of Rowan, he antagonizes the Astaroth's army for several days before being cornered in the ditch, where Max kills all of the vyes. Afterward, Astaroth and Max reach an agreement to surrender the Book of Thoth in return for Connor Lynch and Mrs. Richer. The Fiend and the Forge Max greets the Demon Prusias, showing proud defiance by refusing to bow. Later, he is angered by a dryad who calls Astaroth the Great God. He is able to free the Former Workshop Director from the hags. He is grief stricken when his father was killed. Seeking revenge, he borrows the Ormenheid, a ship that sails own its own and can be shrunken down to the size of a matchbox. He takes residence in a farm, after rescuing the children and defeating the monster in the well. He is horrified to find that the monster was once human. Once Prusias finds out Max's location, he takes him to Blys where he forces Max to fight in order for admittance for several humans outside the doors. After taking the alias of Bragha Rùn, he defeats a grylmhoch and Max's own clone where he is declared by Prusias the champion of Blys. Later, Prusias wants Max to attack Lord Aamon, but when Max refuses to relent he is outraged and nearly kills Max. He orders his imp, Mr. Bonn to take Max away. During Max's imprisonment, Astaroth visits Max, and reveals that he knows about David`s plan to poison him with blood petals, revealing his immunity to the venom. Later, Cooper rescues Max. Max journeys with David to the Isle of Man, where David convinces the Fomorian to reforge the gae bolga. As Max had suspected, he learns that the gae bolga is a live thing, three locks of Morrigan`s hair. When the Fomorian fails, Nick sacrifices himself and his quills are used to strengthen the blade. Max, David, and Toby journeys to Walpurgisnacht where Toby masquerades as Cambrylla. Max is afraid, knowing that Astorath knows of David`s plan. However, he is surprised when Astaroth is weakened, and during the commotion that follows Max avenges his father and inflicts wounds on Prusias with his gae bolga. When Max comes to, he finds that Walpurgisnacht was a rescue mission. Elias Bram had returned. The Maelstrom After Walpurgisnacht, Max had journeyed to black markets for valuable merchandise, and information. When he returns, he is confronted by several refugees, before meeting Lord Naberius to discuss Rowan's relationship with the king of Blys. Lord Naberius says that they will make peace with Rowan-as long as Rowan surrenders the gae bolga and Elias Bram. He also says that Max's name had been written in the Gray Book and that the Atropos will target Max. He meets with the Archmage who tells him that the Atropos may attempt to possess his friends in order to kill Max. Already, William Cooper and Ben Polk had disappeared; it is likely the Atropos is behind this. Soon, Elias Bram`s words prove true; Rolf Luger, possessed by a demon, tries to kill Max but is brutally slain by Umbra. David locates the demon and binds him to a ring to warn Max of any danger. Max leaves Rowan with David and Toby via tunnel in order to infiltrate Blys, where he talks to Madam Petra as goblins. She reveals the Workshop's secret weapon, the pinlegs. However, the Atropos had already hired Max's clones in order to kill Max, and they barely escape with their life. Madam Petra says that Max owes her a new estate. They take refuge, but not before long the Atropos catches up with Max and nearly kills him, if it wasn't for David. They barely escape Yuga, and Max was near fatally wounded. Luckily he recovers. After Max leaves the infirmary, he finds Julie Teller, who was still angry Max had left her. She was going to marry Thomas Polk. They continue experiments with the pinlegs, and find they will be used to summon dreadnoughts. War is declared, and he is confronted by Astaroth who offers him a deal to save Rowan, in return killing Elias Bram. He meets the sorcerer himself, who reveals the ancient history of Astaroth, and that he will offer YaYa as a steed. Max becomes the commander of the Trench Rats, who will hold Trench 19. They are the dregs, who are incompetent or unruly, but their abilities blossom under Max's leadership. He also finds that Umbra was actually Scathach, who risked her immortality for Max. They hold the barrier successfully, and the enemy never laid foot within the campus. The victory is short lived, as Max finds that Scathach likely perished in the battle. The situation worsens when Prusias released the dreadnoughts, who nearly lay waste to Rowan. Max is compelled to summon Astaroth, but David manages to find the dreadnought's fatal flaw and they finally triumph. He is last seen journeying with David, Lucia, Cynthia, Bob, Mrs.Boon, Toby, and William Cooper in the Ormenheid. The Red Winter Cynthia and Lucia travel to Enlyll while Max and the rest of the crew visit Shrope Hovel. Soon, though, the McDaniels clones catch up to them and the crew is forced to split. An injured Max heads along with Scathach to the Isle of Man. Eventually, the Fomorian is able to rescue Max. Max has an encounter with the goddess Morrigan, whose essence exists within the gae bolga and later convinces the Fomorian to divulge to him his geis. When the Fomorian refuses to join Rowan's cause, the pair is ordered to head for Enlyll as well. Upon arriving in Enlyll, the two attend a party at Connor's castle. The attendance of many demons leads to a heated atmosphere. Max and Scathach try to find out more about the Elder Vyes. When they discover that Lord Grael, a powerful demon in Prusias' court, is murdered by the branch of Elder Vyes called Raszna. Max, Scathach, Sarah, Lucia and Connor are led to Arcanum, the Raszna's secret school of magic. Max, who is tasked with enlisting the Raszna, convinces the Archon - Arcanum's leader - to assist them and the two agree upon a promising future for the magical humans and Raszna's relationship. Max is next seen leading Rowan's army against the city of Blys. After the city is breached, Max and Scathach meet up with William and Hazel Cooper, Peter Varga, and Toby. The crew sets out to find Prusias, who is hiding somewhere in the Workshop. At some point they are separated. Cooper goes out in search of someone who might know where Prusias is holed up and who will possibly help them, while Scathach goes to deal with a dangerous situation. However, the clones catch up to her and she is killed. An overwhelmed Max finally lets in the Old Magic that has always threatened to consume him. Mad with rage, he finds Prusias and annihilates the Great Red Dragon, leaving a mere man behind. Then he teleports everyone Prusias' throne room, where he is once again greeted by the Morrigan. He resists her temptations once again and David leads him to a wounded Fomorian. Knowing the Fomorian cannot die unless he kills him, Max stabs him with the gae bolga, while David finally gives the giant a truename. However, Max's geis is now broken. Max is slowly healing due to Ember's powers, when he is approached by Bram, who asks him to accompany him to a place they might get information about Astaroth's origins and how they can kill him. They travel to the Witchpeaks - former Himalayas - and they enter Tartarus, a place for tormented souls. They manage to glean some answers out of the shadow of Neheb - Mr. Sikes' human identity - but Bram is captured and consumed by Astaroth. Max just barely manages to return to Rowan. David, Max, Cynthia, Toby and YaYa craft a plan and head to the mountaintop of Ymir, where Astaroth is trying to open a portal for his Starving Gods and former masters to enter this world and destroy it. Max manages to beat him and takes back the Book of Thoth, which he can now understand. Realizing its power, he gives it back to David's wise keep. Some months later, Rowan is getting ready for the treaty to be signed between humans and demons. Rowan is also mending its relationship with the Vyes and preparing for a fruitful future. Max once again confronts the clones and this time Alpha and Omega are no match for Max and his faithful Nox. Max then realizes it's time he left this world and uses Ormenheid to get to the Sidh. He is surprised and happy to once again to be reunited with his parents and Scathach. Impyrium Max McDaniels plays a short, but significant role in this book. When Hazel Faerigine visits the portal which leads to the Sidh, she meets a grown up Max who has now become the new king of the Sidh, replacing his father. Max is able to see into Hazel and see the evil soul inside of her. He tries to reach through the portal to extract it from her, but after all this time Max has forgotten that his body is mortal outside of the Sidh and his wounds temporarily reopen before he takes back his hand. Max then tells hazel that "there is always a choice" before the portal closes. Powers & Abilities Mystics Max is not the finest of Mystics, but is a capable one. However, he is an excellent practitioner of Amplification, which allows Max to enhance his strength and speed to superhuman limits, allowing Max to break several school records regarding the final physical tests in his first year. He is also a skilled illusionist. At the end of the Red Winter, he is capable of fooling Cooper with his illusions. Old Magic Max, as a son of Lugh, possesses vast stores of Old Magic. His control of it grows steadily throughout the course of the series, as does its power. It seems to reach its peak after the grief from Scathach's death causes him to snap, unleashing his full power. During this time, he seemed to be invincible: Workshop weapons were unable to touch him, and he defeated Prusias without the gae bolga. Healing Max is capable of healing from almost any wound. He was able the withstand a fatal dose of tranquilizer without any noticeable effects. He has been poisoned several times, once with a large enough dosage to kill hundreds of men. Each time, he has healed without any lasting effects. The two exceptions are a scar from Scathach, which he chose to keep, and the wound from the Knife of Set. Aura Max's aura, or shine, is an expression of his Old Magic, and is extremely bright. He is able to use it as a weapon, blasting his opponents with it, as it also gives off heat. Max's shine increases dramatically after Scathach's death, but diminishes after his encounter with the entity in Tartarus, meaning that it is a expression of his Old Magic. Shapeshifting While Max does not change into animals, as Bram and David do, he can change his body into pure energy. This energy is described as "white-hot fire" and seems to be similar to the true form of a rakshasa. Teleportation This is an ability that Max does not possess until late in the Red Winter. He is able to teleport himself and multiple others, similarly to how Bram was able to teleport with David, Max, and Toby after Walpurgisnacht. Combat Expertise Max is best known for his skill in combat. He was trained in the Sidh by Scathach and mastered all of the feats taught to him. He is skilled in the use of swords and spears, wielding both throughout the series. He is also proficient in the use of knives. He was the Champion of Blys, a title that he won by fighting and killing numerous powerful opponents. He has slain a multitude of vyes, ogres, death knights, and demons, including Vyndra. Weaknesses 'Geasa: '''Max is forbidden to knowingly kill his kin. This includes his clones, who share his blood. This may be why the Gae Bolga turns cold and refuses to cut them. Max is also forbidden to deny someone's dying request. When the Fomorian's dying wish is for Max to kill him, Max is forced into breaking one of his Geasa. Max chooses to break his first by fulling the Fomorian's wish and killing him, leading to the result that is his wounds reopening and start to bleed again. Relationships David Menlo David is Max's roommate and one of his best friends. During his time at the Workshop, Max is tasked with protecting David at all costs. Nick Max is the caretaker of Nick the Lymrill. He adopted Nick in The Hound of Rowan and has taken care of him through the two following books. Nick is very close to Max, as it is shown through various examples. Nick is always happy and excited when Max comes to feed and play with him. Also, Max would not leave without Nick in The Second Siege and both of them are very happy to see each other after months of being apart in The Fiend and the Forge. Nick sacrifices himself in The Fiend and the Forge so that ''gae bolga can be rightly repaired by the Fomorian. Julie Teller Max's girlfriend was Julie Teller, who is two years older than him. In The Second Siege Julie is visited by Mr. Sikes, who tells her that terrible things will happen if she continues with Max. Confused and angry that she ignores him, an oblivious Max asks Mr. Sikes to wipe Julie out of his memory. In The Fiend and the Forge, however, they are together again, until Julie's parents kindly ask him to leave her, for her own good, and he agrees it's for the best, much to Julie's dismay. In The Maelstrom Julie Teller is engaged to Thomas Polk, and harbors ill feeling toward Max for leaving her. However, they settle their feelings later on in the book. Scathach Scathach is Max's former trainer in the Sidh known as the warrior maiden. After he leaves fully trained, Max sites her a few times during his struggles: In The Fiend and the Forge during his fight in the Coliseum, Max determinedly finishes the fight after seeing her among the crowd. Before the battle against Prusias at Rowan, she disguises as a refugee- Umbra, in order to protect and keep an eye on Max and later on he discovers this. Max discovering Scathach turns back into a mortal, revealed by the reappearance of her shadow. In the Maelstrom, Max claimed that Scathach is his Aurora. He and Scathach both have feelings for each other. After Julie Teller exclaims her annoyance at Max and how he always drifted away, she touches upon her worry that he had fallen in love with the maiden in the Sidh. Max ponders this and finally announces to himself that he has. In the final book, Scathach accompanies Max wherever he goes and serves as a guardian. She is in love with Max throughout the novel. While the workshop is in revolt and they attempt to capture Prusias, Scathach goes to save children and Madam Petra from a Basilisk, when the clones appear and kill her. She is not seen again until the very end of the novel, when Max returns to the Sidh to find her rejuvenated and in great health. She was given back to Max as a gift for his return to his true home. Nox Nox is the daughter of Nick and becomes Max's new charge. She is presented to Max by Mina, who tells Max that Nox is Nick's last gift to him. While her connection to Max is not as strong as Nick's, the two do become very close. Nox follows Max throughout the Red Winter, even jumping through the portal to Ymir when Max leaves to stop Astaroth. Scratch marks are seen on the smaller clone, Omega, when the clones are found dead. Nox apparently contributed significantly to the effort to kill the clone. She also travels with him to the Sidh on his final journey there.Category:CharactersCategory:StudentsCategory:FacultyCategory:Major Characters